Housing Project Falling In

Unit Ceiling Gives Way

NEWPORT NEWS — If she's lucky, Shirley A. Davis will be moved from her decaying Lassiter Courts apartment in about five years.

After what happened Sunday, five days wouldn't be soon enough.

Davis was upstairs around dinnertime when she heard a sudden crash and breaking glass in the living room below. Her first thought was of her year-old son, who had been playing on the sofa minutes earlier.

She darted down the steps to find her sofa, stereo and shelves covered with drywall and broken ashtrays on the floor. She looked up to find a gaping six-by-five foot hole in the ceiling.

"I ran down and said, `Oh, Lord.' It scared me to death," she said.

Fortunately, she said, her son had just left the room to go outdoors with his sister. But watching her ceiling cave in makes her angry and nervous about the safety of her and her three children.

The accident at Davis' home, which is being investigated, is just another in the ongoing series of crises for residents of Lassiter Courts, an aging public housing complex in the city's East End.

In 1987, engineers found many of the 350 apartments were being devoured by termites and were not fit for habitation. Since then, the city Redevelopment and Housing Authority has boarded up the very worst units and made repairs to others. It also has applied to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for money to demolish about half of the complex between now and 1995.

Under that plan, the authority would tear down about 150 apartments on Taylor Drive in six phases, with 25 units being demolished and rebuilt each year. After that, the authority hopes to demolish the remaining 200 apartments near Lassiter Drive.

But as federal approval for the demolition faces delays, the apartments continue to decay. And housing officials aren't sure how many will last until demolition day.

"We certainly hope they will" last that long, said William L. Hawkins, the housing authority's executive director. "But if we find out all of a sudden there are 100 of the units with structural problems, we'll obviously have to go back to HUD and say, `let's look at this thing.'"

Hawkins said there probably are enough available apartments scattered throughout the city's public housing areas to accommodate Lassiter tenants whose units fall apart before they are demolished. Davis' apartment is scheduled in the fifth year.

HUD has authorized the demolition of the first 25 apartments, but has delayed completing the final paperwork for several months. Hawkins said that has been frustrating for the authority, which had planned to be building new apartments at Lassiter by now.

But Hawkins said he believes final approval is forthcoming and that demolition can begin soon.

"I feel confident that it's going to go through," he said.

Davis, who has lived in her Taylor Drive apartment for eight years, said Sunday's ceil ing collapse was the latest of several problems there.

First came cracks in the ceilings, then in some walls. Now, she says, the authority should move her into another apartment - preferably not in Lassiter - and condemn hers.

"This dwelling is not fit to live in," she said, pointing to the drywall pieces strewn across the floor and the white dust settled on her furniture.

Maintenance workers, however, say Davis' ceiling can be repaired and have told her to remain there with her family until it's fixed. Hawkins said Monday that he has asked his maintenance supervisor to personally survey the apartment before making that decision.

"We have to make a value judgment as to whether that's a regular maintenance problem or a structural problem," Hawkins said. "If the building is structurally unsafe, we would certainly move the tenant out."